Years ago, almost every town had one. They served as a meeting place among friends and neighbors. You could catch up on local news and wet your whistle at the same time.

This long-gone establishment was the general store. It carried candy, soda, cigarettes, gas, hardware and a few clothing items like gloves and hats. Some were even run by a “registered” pharmacist and carried medicine for what ailed you.

In the small northwestern Kansas community where I grew up, Albert Dreese owned and operated the general store. Instead of shopping for yourself, Mr. Dreese would take your shopping list, grab a brown paper bag and grope through dimly lighted aisles and the maze of store items carefully selecting and filling your order.

When Mr. Dreese returned, he’d hand my mom the bag and me a sucker or balloon before bidding us good-bye and returning to his cronies and the pitch game at the small table in the center of the store.

Mr. Dreese never rang up your bill on a cash register either. He figured everything in his head, wrote it down on a small note pad and made change out of the front pockets of his trousers.

While a card game was in progress, it was up to individual players to serve themselves a soda or beer and deposit the correct change on the counter top. No interruptions please – the game was all-important. Peanuts to munch on while playing cards were weighed out on a scale and poured into a small brown bag.

During the winter, no one stoked the pot-bellied stove except Mr. Dreese because a cherry red stove would melt all his chocolate bars, or that’s what he told all the youngsters and me who visited his store. Why, he even ran old Mr. Reinhart out of the store one day for tampering with his stove.

Another source of entertainment in the general store was a one-armed bandit – yep, right in the little community of Seguin. Farmers around home didn’t need to travel to Las Vegas – they farmed for a living and dropped by the back room of Mr. Dreese’s store. The sheriff never knew about this one-armed bandit, or so I thought.

When my dad was a young man, Mr. Dreese owned the only generator in our little town and supplied the church with electricity for evening services.

But for me as a youngster, the little general store offered up a smorgasbord of fun especially when I had a few coins burning a hole in my pockets. Davey Thummel and I would walk down to the store and plunk down a dime for a Coke and fill it with a nickel bag of peanuts.

Albert Dreese isn’t around anymore. Neither is the store. His business and others like it couldn’t compete with the giant supermarkets offering lower prices and modern conveniences all under one roof.

His store didn’t have air conditioning for those hot, northwestern Kansas summer days. It didn’t have easy listening music, coupons or anything you could want, or didn’t need.

All Mr. Dreese had to offer was himself, a smile and dedicated service to his customers who dropped by his little general store. Yes, his memory lives on in my mind and others who knew and loved him. His personal touch and sincere interest in his neighbors and friends is an attribute we can all strive for in our own lives.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

“…except for all of those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Speaking to the British Parliament many generations ago, Prime Minister Winston Churchill actually was paraphrasing an earlier writer, Robert Briffault, who was seriously proposing that we question if democracy is indeed the only system consistent with justice.

This election cycle has caused some Americans to question if our system is really the best political system? Or at least, is there some way for us to improve our electoral process?

• Many voters felt stuck with inferior candidates, given a choice of the lesser of two evils.
• Many voters wanted a centrist candidate, not polar opposites.
• Again the electoral college system selects one candidate while the popular vote goes to the loser.
• Many voters in the primary were surprised to find they also voted for delegates, not candidates.
• And the year-and-a-half of campaign divisiveness produced a public anger that lasts into the next term, harming chances at public harmony and political compromise.

These problems were already anticipated by Mickey Edwards in his book “The Parties versus The People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans” published in 2012. Edwards was an Oklahoma Congressman for sixteen years and used his firsthand experience in Washington to provide a inside look at how the Party system has come to distort our form of democracy.

This may be a good time to consider what might be changed with our current political system. Many voters wanted to send someone to Washington who would exercise independent political judgement, perhaps in the model of Jimmy Stewart’s character in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Unfortunately, independent-thinking centrist candidates were not on our ballots.

Edwards points to our current two-Party system as limiting ballot choices, causing polarization, and preventing candidates from truly representing their local constituencies. He points out how the majority Party has the sole power to control which bills will be considered and who will be allowed to testify in hearings. And with voting levels in primaries low, a relatively small number of voters determined who the candidates were in the fall elections. He describes how “lose to a small band of committed party loyalists and your candidacy is over, no matter how skilled, qualified, smart, or honest you might be, or how popular you are with the majority of your state’s voters.”

Edwards goes beyond listing the deficiencies of our current system to proposing solutions. One proposal is to move to non-party-based primary elections. Every candidate who can secure the required number of petition signatures gets to run on a single primary ballot. Then the top two run against each other, even if from the same party. This system is already in place in Louisiana, Washington State and California. This would allow a “Mr. Smith” to go to Washington who is not held to the rigid Party system that he describes as “power-seeking private clubs” that choke off centrists and political options.

His second proposal is to take away Parties’ control over redistricting, a procedure that locks in place the numbers of representatives the controlling Party can hold at the state level.

A third revision is to reduce spending and increase competition. He notes it is difficult to limit contributions under our campaign finance laws. But if candidates are to represent their constituents, then the contributions should only come from their constituencies. Instead, huge amounts of money from outside entities pour into a local district to promote a candidate making the winning candidate indebted to an agent outside his or her district. That may remain unsolvable in an age of super-PACs and widespread corporations, but this money stream poisons the democratic system.

Edwards also recommends that states modify their laws for “equal time” for all candidates, a strategy that has now become even more critical after our successful Presidential candidate was able to garner tremendous press attention by being sensational and outrageous.

Edwards also proposes that we establish a nonpartisan Congressional leadership, and other changes.
Many Americans ask why we did not have a better selection of candidates at the local, state and national level. Edwards suggest continuing to work in a polarizing two-Party system will not solve the problems of a majority-centrist country.

Democracy is not the worst form of government. But Mickey Edwards suggests how our particular form of democracy could be improved.

November 14, 2016

Hello from Agra!

Last Tuesday, the people spoke loud and clear, we want change.

While most of us remained focused on the Presidential election, there were many changes happening in Kansas. When it was all said and done, Donald J. Trump became President-Elect and in the Kansas House, Republicans lost a net 12 seats. This goes back to what former Speaker of the U.S. House, Tip O’Neill said “All politics is local.” It means we as elected officials need to continue to talk with our constituents and do our best to meet their needs.

January will be here before we know it and the challenges ahead are big, and with many new faces and ideas it might be one where idealism wins out over practicality. In the end, I believe we will come together as one Kansas and pass bills that our constituents told us they want.

Legislators will gather in Topeka on Monday, December 5th for leadership elections. Once we know who the leaders will be, it will give a better direction on how fast or slow we will work on the list ahead of us.

On a personal note, I would like to thank you for your vote on election day. I look forward to seeing you out and about in the district before the legislature convenes in January. If you have questions, or if I can be of service, please contact me: Ken Rahjes, 1798 E. 900 Rd. Agra, KS 67621 or call (785) 302-8416.

Thank you for the opportunity to be your representative!

Ken Rahjes, (R-Agra) is the 110th Dist. State Representative.